“Have you tried turning it off and on again?” Thus goes the punchline of one of Britain’s most entertaining and often surreal sitcoms of the 21st century, The IT Crowd. But while the zany antics of Moss, Roy and Jen may belong squarely in the realm of fiction (and rarely have much, if anything at all to do with IT) they do capture what it’s like to work in IT support in broad terms every now and then. There’s a whole lot more to IT support than asking people if they’ve tried rebooting their thin client (although you will likely do it at least once). If you have entrepreneurial ambitions you may come straight out the gate wanting to start your own IT crowd, delivering bespoke IT and communications systems to small businesses and making the world a better place one query at a time.
But while an IT consultancy is a great idea for a startup which can quickly become a valuable and profitable enterprise, like any startup, it comes with an element of risk. Here are some pointers to help you to merge your entrepreneurial ambition with your technical mastery...
Get some in-house experience under your belt first.
Whether you have hefty qualifications under your belt or whether you’re a self taught autodidact, clients will want to know that you are experienced in providing IT solutions to small business, that you’re able to identify their needs and provide solutions that can be scaled up or down as their enterprises grow or contract. With this in mind, it’s a good idea to put in some time with a reputable company that provides Computer Support and Cloud Solutions to businesses. Here you will gain valuable insight not only in how to deliver solutions and support to businesses but how to handle clients, how to deal with queries and gain the valuable business insights which will help you to...
Find and know your niche
The IT support market used to be a small cottage industry, now it’s bigger than ever, with a range of businesses large and small all looking to outsourced service providers to bring them specific solutions to your business needs. The key to success in a crowded marketplace is to know your niche, identifying a particular area of business or a particular type of software solution and building your enterprise around it. Needless to say, it behoves you to choose something that interests you and something that you’re passionate about. Not only will it enable you to provide better services for your clients,it will make the busy and stressful process of running a business much easier and more enjoyable.
Practice your smile
A big part of IT consultancy is being able to provide technical assistance to non technical personnel. Sounds easy, right? But some people you encounter will be really, really non technical. They’ll be stressed, worries about how non functional equipment or software will affect their productivity and it will be your job to make sure that they put down the phone with a smile on their faces. Thus, you should practice your smile. They might not be able to see it, but trust me they can hear it.
If you can deal with even the most frustrating of clients with a smile on your face you’ll have gleaned an essential non technical skill in IT consultancy.
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